Get Apple ][ to load and run a full program

[geerlingguy]

So far in all our debugging, we've had two sessions where the Apple II was stable enough to try to LOAD and then RUN a program.

We even got Apple Bowling and Apple Startrek to seemingly load in from cassette, but we encountered issues:

• If we LIST the program contents eventually you just see repeating data like HIMEM HIMEM HIMEM 0 HIMEM etc.
• If we RUN the program, we run into issues like an error on line 50, where it has a GOTO to like line 18560, then when we try to LIST 18560, it's just blank. Indicating maybe not the whole program loads into memory.
• We also tried Apple I blackjack, and some other programs from Apple II cassette preservation sites (see Catalog all Apple II cassettes / disks #9), but those would give ERR or other erroneous responses.

So this issue's goal is simple: Get a program to load in, in any way, from cassette, diskette, or maybe if necessary, hand-typing the whole thing!

[geerlingguy]

Dad and I both tried loading in a few more programs.

I even bought an old floppy disk game at VCF Midwest, but when I entered PR#6 the drive spun and clicked a little but then just kept spinning but not reading the disk. And trying with the AppleSoft ROM so it would load automatically, the disk did the same thing and just kept spinning without seeming to load in the program.

Will have to maybe pull apart the drive and see if something mechanical is awry.

[geerlingguy]

Someone at VCFMW also suggested finding an Apple II Super Serial Card, and loading software in that way, with like a Pi over Serial...

That would be nice, but I've seen those cards going above $100 on eBay, which seems a bit much!

There's a clone board, the Simple Serial Card, which could be custom made, but that seems like a bit of work, and it needs an EEPROM burned, which I'm not sure I'd want to do... but it could be fun to do.

Then there's a slightly newer design for the SuperSerial clone by @btb:

Decisions, decisions...

[geerlingguy]

Actually, I might just pick up a Floppy Emu.

In fact, I just did. Wheeee the retro rabbit hole continues...

[geerlingguy]

Another option that can be bootstrapped without any 3rd party device or extra hardware is ADTPro... seems like you could interface with the Apple II directly from a Mac or PC, and load in software over the cassette interface.

But might have similar issues that we ran into trying to load software from the M4 mini at Dad's house.

[geerlingguy]

At this point, we tried loading Breakout (a 4K game) and found that every time we would LIST the program contents, it would have a character or two changed on every line.

This seems to indicate the RAM is not happy, as with no other changes, random characters in the RAM contents shouldn't be changing. And they would get more and more corrupted over time.

We did get one full load of Breakout to work, though it got a little messed up after a few minutes playing. Didn't get the Joysticks out in time for that unfortunately!

Anyway, I'm now going to see if I can source some replacement RAM.

And Dad's going to mess with the Apple II Disk drive to see if he can get that working too.

[geerlingguy]

Over in #17 (comment) @nathanodle said he has some RAM chips, I would be willing to buy some off of him to test, if the offer still stands!

Otherwise, are these Jameco 4164-150 DRAM chips the correct ones?

[geerlingguy]

My how the tables turn...

The RAM could still not be great, but we encountered the strange behaviors above with the Apple II ROM Card 600 installed. With it removed, when we went to LIST program contents, it was the same every time. And loads of Breakout, at least, worked great!

The paddles weren't working great, though... Apparently one of the pins had broken off inside the socket (one of the data pins, no less), so after fiddling with the socket and holding down the plug, we were able to get the paddle to work some of the time.

But this issue's goal has been achieved, at least! Moving on to the next thing...

[btb]

Someone at VCFMW also suggested finding an Apple II Super Serial Card, and loading software in that way, with like a Pi over Serial...

That would be nice, but I've seen those cards going above $100 on eBay, which seems a bit much!

There's a clone board, the Simple Serial Card, which could be custom made, but that seems like a bit of work, and it needs an EEPROM burned, which I'm not sure I'd want to do... but it could be fun to do.

Then there's a slightly newer design for the SuperSerial clone by @btb:

[image here]

Decisions, decisions...

If you would like, I have an extra completed card I can send you. If you want to try working with actual floppy disks, probably the easiest way to create them is with ADTPro over serial.

[geerlingguy]

@btb - If you have one, I'd be happy to pay for shipping (and if you have a price for it, let me know!), you can find my contact info on https://www.jeffgeerling.com/about — I'd love to have more ways to get data in/out of the Apple II, and your card looks like the cleanest implementation that's still pretty much in the style/spirit of the era!